Investing to the Moon

By Caleb Coronado

It is no secret the pandemic hurt many financially. Employment rose to 14% despite just having a record low of 3.5% in February.

Then, a vaccine has inspired many to believe that the world is on the verge of returning to a familiar “normal.” This has led investors who bought at the time of the dip to make significant margins on their investments.

Noah Floden, a 21-year-old junior majoring in finance at Iowa State, started buying stocks this summer.

“I learned [stocks] with my grandpa and this summerI finally had the right amount of money to throw it in,” Floden said.

Since then, Floden has shifted his investments into cryptocurrency. A single Bitcoin reached a price of $57,128 on Feb. 21 compared to its lows of $1 just a decade ago. These kinds of return margins are what attract investors to start putting funds into crypto.

Lincoln Gillotti, a senior majoring in finance at Iowa State, has invested in cryptocurrencies since the end of 2019. The rule of thumb on investments has been that they should double in six months, but for Gillotti, his have quadrupled in that time. Gillotti is an example of a success story. The right picks at the right time have worked in his favor. As more people are retail trading and achieving financial success doing so, those who lack the knowledge feel like they’re missing out and want to join in on the profits.

Hopping on hype trains such as the recent February Gamestop stock surge, which was sparked by users on Reddit banding together, is something that Floden suggests avoiding. The best route to him is instead doing methodical and thorough research.

“Don’t go in blind,” Floden said. “If you go in blind, you’re just shooting fish in a barrel.”

Gillotti also advises that retail traders should avoid surges entirely and instead suggest taking a more patient approach to their investments. While you can make money in crypto during a bull run like 90% of the time, you’re better off holding it,” Gillotti said. The days of Jordan Belfort and Wall Street middlemen scrapping insane fees on investments are over. Take a trip to the app store on your smartphone and there you will find a wide amount of brokerage apps that offer fee-free transactions that allow users to monitor their investments at all times of the day closely. The stock is open five days a week while the crypto exchange is open 24/7.While investing sounds intimidating, there are ways to get some money in the market and diversify your assets and increase your wealth. “Acorns” is a new broker app that makes micro investment for you by rounding purchase price, making investing not feel like such a heavy and financial commitment.